Social Media Reset: Only to Create, Not Consume
After deleting my social media accounts (literally) and embracing the absence of digital noise, I realised with a clear mind that I needed to re-think my usage of social media for my blog. Since I am not a fan of social media from personal point of view, I need it to connect with my readers, to allow my readers to connect with me via their preferred platform.
After Deleting Social Media, I’m Learning to Use It Mindfully — No more mindless scrolling.
Your social media presence is a part of your work, especially in the new age careers. Your existence on social media helps your blog somewhere, either by contributing to blog traffic or updating your audience. Whatever the goal is, social media has been an important element for a blogger.
But, for me? I am not a fan of social media. The thought of me being on a social platform is exhausting.
Quitting social media was the best decision ever!
It started in 2010…
I created my social media account back in 2010 (Facebook), and then new platforms came in, including Instagram, and, like every other teenager, I created my account without a second thought. I still don’t know why I created those accounts or felt the urge to be on social media.
Years passed by, and I always had an on/off experience with social media. Random strangers popping into my accounts, relatives making teasing comments, and whatnot. Even though, over the years, I dreaded being on social media, it never really crossed my mind to get off and delete those accounts.
I am not denying the fact that social media helped me meet and connect with some of the best people I have in my life, but over the years, the crowd of social media and the privacy over there just went down the drain.
Every time I posted something on social media, it became a source of negative and taunting comments from my close people (relatives).
I used to share pictures of my nail art and paintings, but they always criticized it in taunting ways.
Next, because my friend list consisted of my schoolmates, whatever I shared acted like a broadcast, and everyone knew everything. 🙃
— I wish I had some real guidance during my teenage years. 🥲
I was under the wrong influence
I used to see my classmates and cousins having a huge list of connections, updating everything to social media, and all of this affected me in a way that I am a part of this too/ or social media is a part of my life and I will be doing something wrong if I did not do what these people did.
By then, you can imagine that social media had already affected me.
I launched my Blog — and started posting content on Instagram too
Years passed by, I graduated, and this was the time (2016) I started my journey of Blogging.
Till then, I was on social media for my own use, you can say but the moment that “influencer” thing started to make waves, I thought maybe I could do the same with my Instagram as well not particularly with an influencer mindset, but with more of sharing a short summary and update of my articles.
How to Start a Blog + Grow and Monetize Your Beauty Blog
It goes without saying that I enjoyed that phase a lot, met a lot of people in my industry, and built some great lifelong connections, but as expected, I received insulting and taunting comments from relatives.
I just don’t get it — why do some people need to be on social media, be on their friend list, stalk everything they do, and then act like they have no clue about it? But in reality, they have already broadcasted everything to other people and are ready to serve your comments in real life.
I was like, can’t I just remove my close connections from my social profiles and use it as my work profile only? That is when I realized I made the biggest mistake of using those social accounts I made in 2010 for my blog in 2016. I should have created new profiles!!
Over the years, I had this thought so many times about removing my close connections and keeping the follower list limited to followers of my blog and Instagram content. But, I couldn’t do so. Why? Because I was obviously way too afraid thinking about what my relatives would say now.
A revolution of reels came in, and the quality of the crowd degraded
I continued my journey on social media, and then came the revolution of vertical videos.
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Reels have sort of acquired the whole internet. Within a few years, the concept of social media took a major twist, and the crowd of social media became so cheap that it became exhausting for me to be on those platforms, consuming content in my own personal time.
I stopped posting on social media!
There were so many factors. I did not feel like posting on my accounts where my close connections would see my content first and make judgments.
I did not feel like being on those platforms where this random cheap content is now taking over social media and many other thoughts.
Cut to 2024: I decided to remove all my personal connections from my social accounts and start putting my energy back into creating content like a dedicated creator. I started posting reels on IG and YouTube.
Of course, my blog is my primary source, but being on social media was important too (at least in my mind), and simply updating about my new articles on social media wasn’t helping.
If I had to gain views and grow my accounts, videos and reels were the only option, and I was somewhere liking making videos on my skincare and hair care favorites, makeup looks, and eyeshadows.
But that, too, did not help with my mental peace.
The thought of scrolling Instagram drained my energy
I had a moment of relief, for sure, after removing all those stalking connections, but still, something was bothering me. It had come to a point that every time I opened my IG, my DMs were full of reels from my friends, and I, too, started to spend a major chunk of my time scrolling through reels.
Every time I saw a reel, it somehow affected me. Reels of accidents and fake news and whatnot started to flow on my feed, and I just couldn’t have it any longer.
I know that for a lot of people, Instagram is engraved to their core, and for some, it’s crucial for their business, but for me, it was not working.
I continued to tell myself that I needed to continue posting and didn’t care about the crowd because if I stopped posting on the gram, how would Brands see my work?
The Content on Instagram Has Gone to an All-Time Low
Not too late, my content started getting low engagement, and videos like someone drinking sewage water (not kidding) and doing 💩 things started to become more viral. I was literally having headaches at the thought of opening Instagram.
By then, I had already stopped operating my Facebook and Twitter. They were active, but I wasn’t actively posting on them except for my article links.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that during this phase, I had already scheduled my Snapchat for deletion because I was too tired of my friends constantly reminding me to send photos for a streak!! (God!)
Over all this time, I had this thought of deleting my IG and starting fresh a zillion times. I created new accounts so many times but deleted them eventually because who has the energy to start from scratch when there is an existing account with years of hard work, connections, and everything?
The moment was here – DELETE EVERYTHING
But one fine day, I just couldn’t bear this overthinking anymore because I was no longer interested in posting on my accounts anyway AND, I scheduled all my social accounts for DELETION!!
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), and even this newbie in town, Threads, which I actually grew to a great level – DELETE!
I had already removed these apps from my phone way back and was only accessing them via desktop, but that was the moment when I was like, Goodbye, social media.
I can not describe the breeze of freshness and peace I felt after scheduling my accounts for deletion. The kind of calmness, unreal. 😌
Meanwhile, I had already explored BlueSky and Mastadon, and for some reason, I was just not ready for a new platform, especially when my audience was not there.
I can not explain in words how happy I am to be away from those apps, to not exist on those apps anymore, and the thought of me not being on those apps was truly satisfying.
I wondered if I should start fresh 🥸
Weeks later, these thoughts crossed my mind: What if my readers want to connect with me over Instagram? Should I create new accounts?
After careful consideration, I decided to start fresh.
I created a new Instagram followed by threads. A few weeks later, I created fresh Twitter and Facebook accounts as well.
I spent so much of my time setting up new Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, setting the bios, and linking them to my blog — my eyes actually strained only to figure out this ain’t going to work.
Meanwhile, I read so many Reddit forums on how people found it calming and the best decision ever when they decided to get off social media. Literally, everyone was speaking my mind when they wrote that Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter all had gone down the drain, be it their algorithm or the fact that content is actually 💩 over there.
I just can not be on these platforms anymore.
Simplified My Online Presence ✨
I have lost count of the many times I reactivated my new Threads account only to delete it later. And I don’t like the fact that Threads is a part of Instagram.
I liked Threads initially so much that I thought this is where I shine, a text-based social media app. But God knows what happened over the course of time that I decide to get off these platforms.
The fact that my Threads account and IG account are connected bugged me so much that I made a final decision to delete it, and to be honest, the content on Threads only got worse over time.
People were either posting the weirdest and most disgusting content or just posting random content in multiple threads to gain views or followers.
Even when I thought of starting fresh with Threads, the fact that I need an IG account for this made me want to stay away from it.
Why Twitter Earned Its Way Back Into My Toolbox
In recent years, especially after becoming X, it has become a hell of a toxic place. Such weird and strange videos started popping up on my Twitter feed, which had no relevance whatsoever.
During this time, I had already stopped posting about my eyeshadow looks. It was only a place for me to drop my article updates and links. I stopped opening Twitter to check up on it.
When I decided to delete my social media accounts, I obviously considered Twitter as well, and I did. But within a few days, I felt that it might not be a good sign for my blog’s health.
I realized Twitter/X is sending social signals for my blog, which is important for my blog.
The fact that tweets were now discoverable by search engines made me rethink my decision.
Deleting my Facebook page, Instagram, and even Threads was definitely a great decision, as they weren’t contributing to my blog, and I am not a fan of having a giant social presence on social platforms.
But Twitter/X? I came to the realization that it is somewhere adding value to my blog. All the article links I shared over Twitter were discoverable by search engines and ultimately sent traffic to my blog.
That being said, my X engagement is no longer what it used to be. The fact that my post gets discovered by search engines and redirects the reader to my blog is making me keep my X account active. My X account in itself gets 0 engagements, absolutely zero but the same post will show up on the search engine, so sharing my article links on X eventually helped readers ultimately land on my blog. 💁🏻♀️
UPDATE – March 10, 2025
I have decided to give BlueSky a try. Will see how it goes 🙌 Meanwhile, if you are on BlueSky, let’s connect!
Done with Facebook and Its Draining Cheap Vibes
I had already deleted the Facebook account I had from years ago, and the one I started fresh was somehow disabled by Facebook even after providing all the verifications they requested.
One way or another, I am out of Facebook completely.
The only reason I considered creating a new FB account was to stay in touch with my hosting and theme groups. Other than that, that platform is of no use to me, and now that FB has disabled my new account, I ain’t thinking of creating a new one either.
UPDATE – 14 April 2025
Meta restored my Facebook account via their Meta-verified support. I was casually checking the Meta Verified options and saw this banner where they were offering me Meta Verification for INR 45/- for the first month. I thought I could give this a try, experience that blue badge for a month, and make use of Meta Support to see what they have to say about my Facebook getting disabled situation.
Though I wasn’t planning to keep Facebook, it bugged me that they disabled for wrong reasons.
I raised the ticket, and within a week or 10 days, they restored my account. 👀
I was anyway so annoyed that every time I opened my Facebook account, a bunch of reel suggestions showed up in my face, and those were the cheapest selection of reels ever. I would have understood this if I had purposely watched this type of content, but FB doesn’t care about this at all.
Facebook was the worst of them all.
Every time I logged-in, it started flashing reel previews in my face. And I can’t even begin to explain the kind of cheap, cringeworthy content it was suggesting—like, seriously?! Phew, just thinking about it again is enough to trigger all those ugh emotions. 🙈
Social Media has become so cheap over the years, especially after the ease of creating and publishing videos.
Instagram isn’t an ideal platform for my blog as the audience over there is not really interested in leaving the platform and heading over to the website. They want the content there and then, and that too in a short span of time.
My Exit from Instagram
Deleting my Instagram account was the best decision of my life.
When I deleted my IG profile, those who could reach out to me personally asked why I deleted my Instagram when that was my place of work? That is when I realised my IG audience were in the wrong impression and nowhere cared for my blog 😹 despite sharing new article updates.
Because of my one mistake, of using my personal IG account to create content and update for blog post, I never really got the right set of audience.
From a point of view of personal usage, leaving Instagram and not consuming the content over there is something that I wanted for my own mental health.
Done with Instagram. It Got Too Cheap and Exhausting – So I Deleted It
Spending hours scrolling was something that I wanted to come out of, and I am glad I did.
There was a moment when I felt like, “Enough, I am done with Instagram,” and scheduled my OG account for deletion. I can not express the relief and the change I experienced after removing Instagram from my account. Everything felt so much better.
Ever since I deleted my primary IG account and stopped scrolling, my time is spent so much better — and I, feel so much better. 😌
A Fresh Instagram, Solely to Repurpose My YouTube Shorts as IG Reels
After months of Instagram free life, I figured out that for my blog’s niche, beauty and wellness, Instagram is one of the platforms that my readers are interested in connecting on.
That is when I decided, from a clear mind, to repurpose my YT Shorts as my IG Reels.
I created a fresh account, with a clear motive to use it as a tool, to post content, connect with niche creators, and to not to waste my time scrolling.
Because for me — I don’t like Instagram. I don’t like being on Instagram and giving in my time to that platform or to social media in general.
Honestly, after months of being away from Instagram made me realised so much.
I am not back the usual way. The era of spending hours scrolling is gone. Now, it’s all about having an Instagram presence for my blog audience.
That being said, I am happy for anyone for whom Instagram works, be it personally or professionally, and I hope it keeps working for them. 💕
Platforms That Contribute to My Blog
The social accounts that actually help me, be it for my personal use or blog work, are Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn. 🎀 Well, LinkedIn is more for my blog use, and Pinterest and YouTube are super helpful.
Between all the deletion of my accounts, creating new ones, deleting them again, and then reactivating them again only to delete them again, I figured out that social media does nothing except drain my energy. They have no contribution to my blog and I would rather watch a good YouTube video, read a book or watch a web series rather than consume useless content over IG.
GOD, it feels great to be off social media.
I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that I don’t need to be on social media, especially for a personal use. I wish I had this sense and maturity back then. Wasted so much time.
अबलौं नसानी, अब न नसैहौं।
This means I have wasted enough time in my life, but I won’t waste it anymore on useless things. I legit feel like crying over the thought of literally wasting my teenage years and 20s, my precious time, over social media, over the anxiety of what my relatives are going to say now – OH GOD!
I am hitting 30 soon, and I feel like I should have realized this sooner, but I am also glad that I have come to the realization.
Over these past few years, the content has gone way worse than you can imagine. I feel that mindlessly scrolling through reels is the worst thing you can do to yourself.
My only focus is my blog and my YouTube. Of course, LinkedIn and Pinterest are too, but I am never ever going down the path of other social platforms. No thanks.
Kadence Theme Review – My 4-Year Journey with Them (Free + Paid)
It’s not like YouTube is all golden and clean, too. It’s too full of people misusing the platform, but YouTube is still helpful — a lot! And at least, they are constantly improving, in my opinion.
I felt like I needed to share this on my blog, to let it out, to make it official. 😌
Here is to a clean, fresh, and beautiful blogging journey 💕
That was it for today. I hope my words connected to you in one way or another. Feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time. Have a Good Day. 🎀
